Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting comments of people saying that no one should come to the UK and ranting on about everything wrong in their opinion about the UK and I figured, instead of saying I didn’t agree with them, it might be a better idea of address the issue and try and present you with a more holistic picture so you can make your own decision.
I mean some people love it in the UK, others absolutely hate it.
So who do you really believe and how do you know what’s important for you?
How do you even decide if the UK is for you?
We’re talking about all that and more today. You can read about it here or watch this.
I’m Ashika and I’ve been living in the UK for almost 2 years now. I live here with my husband, our son and two dogs.
1. The UK is expensive:
Don’t come to the UK unless you know what your income and expenses will be on an average.
I have found one of the biggest reasons for someone to like or dislike the UK boils down to where you live and how much money you make.
I know it sounds very crude but here’s the truth.
The UK is an expensive place guys. I’ve said this a bunch of times and I’ll say it again. If you are coming from a different country, the UK is expensive. If you live in the UK, the UK is still expensive. It’s like you going to Switzerland and complaining that things are expensive. But everyone already knew that right? So when people complain about how expensive things are here, my question to them is, how is this news to you. Were you not aware of this earlier? It obviously means you’ve not done your research on how much you’ll earn, how much you can spend. We even went to the extent of calculating how much weekly and monthly groceries would cost, how much rent would cost, utilities would cost to understand whether our income would be sufficient. It has definitely gotten more expensive because of inflation, I’m not going to lie, but no one can control that.
I come from India and in India, even if you don’t make a ton of money, you can still live a pretty decent life because there is a huge variety of pretty much everything in India at vastly different price points
You can have a nice dinner spending Rs. 1000 or you have a nice dinner spending Rs. 5000. Both are possible.
You can get a great jacket at Rs. 800 or at Rs. 2000.
In the UK, if you want a decent jacket, you’re looking at spending £70at £40 a few months ago because I didn’t want to spend too much on it and the seams are already coming apart. On the other hand, I bought another jacket last year at £80. You’ll get cheaper items, they probably won’t last long but if you’re looking at spending on something that you’ll need everyday and that’s long lasting, it will get expensive.
A root canal with a dentist will cost you £525 approx., driving classes cost you approx £35 per hour, a mid-sized plant would cost you £35.
Suggestion: Do your homework and figure out how much money you’ll have after your expenses in the UK and be extremely real. If the money isn’t enough, do not move. Wait till you get a better opportunity.
2. The UK job market is what it is:
If you’re watching this video, I’m guessing you want a job that offers sponsorship in the UK.
If you want to know what the probability of you getting a job here is, ask yourself these questions:
Is the job an eligible job?
What is the demand for that job in your current country?
Now considering you need to land that job with not just any employer but one who can offer sponsorship, weigh your odds.
Lets be honest, getting a good job in any country is not the easiest. Now you want to move to another country, and get sponsorship, it’s obviously going to be a little more difficult.
If you were struggling to find a job in your home country, you’ll probably struggle here too and it’s honestly not a fair assumption to think that the job market is rubbish in the UK because you aren’t able to land a job.
You might have to introspect at this point, and see if there’s something wrong at your end and that’s good, because if you have identified the problem and it’s with you, you can at least do something to fix it.
If you studied in the UK, don’t think that just because of that employers in the UK will line up to hire you. No! You’ll have to put in the work. You’ll have to try hard. Your chances will be better but it doesn’t mean you’ll get offered a visa with minimal effort.
There are still jobs in the UK that offer sponsorship, some jobs that pay brilliantly, some that don’t. Some jobs require more of an effort to be put in to convert them, some require less. That’s just how life is.
Suggestion: If you plan on studying in the UK, identify the size of job opportunities that offer sponsorship before you finalise a course. If you want a job, check job portals frequently to understand what the potential for you is.
3. Investment options in the UK are not the best:
One thing I will admit that I’m not fond of in the UK is the absolute lack of simple investment options.
For instance in India, an easy way of investment is to put your money in fixed deposits - the rates are decent, it doesn’t require much effort, its safe and quick.
In the UK your savings accounts earnings 0.1% - 1% interest.
Im not the most savvy when it comes to investments but even then, the system in India was very easy to understand, here’s I honestly feel its a little complicated because we don’t know enough about the market here. The other option is to buy property here but again, that’s a massive cost and something we aren’t sure if we even want, especially if you don’t have an ILR. We honestly don’t know how long we’ll be here.
Suggestion: So the option a lot of people consider is sending money back home to invest simply because its just a lot simpler.
But if you do know easy ways to invest in the UK, do let me know in the comments section below because I really need some help there.
4. You will have to change your way of life
Now the key thing to remember when you move to a new place is that you are moving to a country with its own rules. You have to adjust.
It’s probably different from what you are already used to but this isn’t your home country.
For instance, you might have to unlearn your old style of driving because in UK, the rules for driving are very strict. And you have to follow them.
Back home you can do juggad and solve a lot problems in life. Not the case here. Very often there is no juggad, you have to follow the system.
You might have been used to getting to a pub at 10:30PM or 11PM in India. Well, a lot of pubs close here at 11PM.
Some pubs don’t serve food. Busses don’t run after a certain time in the evening. Clinics don’t operate on weekends.
That’s just how life operates here. So you have to be ready for change because there are a lot of really good changes you’ll encounter - trains are on time, there are clean safe parks for children, schools are free and they’re good, you have clean drinking water, clean air, safety for women & children. Basic things that many of us don’t get in our home countries.
Suggestion: Remind yourself that when you move to a new country, things CANNOT be the same like they were back home. Just be prepared to be more accepting of changes.
5. Your experience in the UK is unique to you:
I like living in the UK. I’ve met others that absolutely don’t. Despite the fact that we have opposing views, neither of us is wrong.
So at the end of the day, depending on whose videos you watch or which Insta accounts you follow, your opinion of the UK will vary.
But if you’re smart, you’ll know not to blindly listen to anyone. What is true for someone else might not be true for you.
Hear a variety of opinions about the UK to get both sides of the picture. I’ll give you an example. Assume someone has done a course in anthropology in the UK and is struggling to find a job says that the UK has no jobs, don’t waste your time coming here. That may not be true for you. You could be a developer, and there might be a lot of options for you.
Assume someone makes 23k with multiple members in their family in the UK but you don’t know that. But they say the UK is too expensive, nothing is affordable. It is true for them. It is undoubtedly expensive. But perhaps your role will offer more, so your experience will be different.
Someone might hate the rain but perhaps you won’t mind it. Someone might find it challenging to make friends but perhaps you won’t and you’ll have a big circle.
Your experience won’t necessarily be the same as someone else’s.
Suggestion: My suggestion here is find out hard realities and base your opinion on that vs something that is relative.
Alright, now I’ve covered a lot of important topics just from the top here but if you want a lot more detailed information on whether you should move to the UK or not, I definitely recommend you watch this.
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